Coronavirus on the Nile : No Friday Prayers at Mosques in Egypt till Coronavirus crisis is over

Egypt’s Ministry of endowment announced on Sunday that it extending the temporary closure of mosque to all kinds of Congregational prayers nationwide till the Coronavirus crisis is over.
It already announced the closure of mosques to congregational prayers on 21 March for 2 weeks period but now they are closed till this pandemic is over.

I do not recall in the Modern history that mosques in Egypt during the times of plagues and epidemics were closed down especially during the Friday prayer.
It is the first time I believe since the 20th Century the Egyptian government supported by the highest Islamic institutions aka Al-Azhar suspends the 5 daily Islamic prayers and the Friday prayer at Mosques nationwide to curb the spread of Coronavirus via mass public gatherings.
I heard the Adhan on Friday for the first time calling the prayers to pray “Zuhr” Prayer at home instead of the Adhan calling for Friday prayer to start.

It was an awkward moment for me because I live beside a small mosque and I got used to hearing the Friday prayer with the sermon authorized by the Ministry of Religious Endowment from my home while I could see tens of men praying outside the crowded mosque.
Friday 27 March 2020, the street was empty and Sheikh called for Zuhr prayer and that’s it.
It was an awkward moment but it is for great good.

Here is a photo that was taken shown an Emam calling for Zuhr prayer in an empty mosque.

Calling for Islamic prayer from an empty mosque last Friday "Masrawy"

For those who do not know, the 5 daily Islamic prayers are preferably to be congregational prayers or “Salat Al-Gama’ah” and the Friday Prayer must be done by the mosque every Friday also in congregational prayer.

Coronavirus on the Nile : A New Week under a partial curfew “Live updated”

This is the start of a new week under a partial curfew because of the Coronavirus outbreak.
This is the start of a new Live updated post, I will try to keep the blog updated with different posts as much as I can.
So far Egypt has crossed the 500 Coronavirus patients with over 120 fully recovered patients thankfully and over 30 deaths, unfortunately.

Sensitizing the Great pyramid of Giza last week " Ministry of antiquities
and tourism"

The government is hoping that it will be able to flatten the curve and not have the number of patients in Egypt doubled to become a thousand because it will be challenging to track down those who interacted with the patients on time.

It is another challenge because we are speaking about a nation of 100 million with a struggling developing economy. Half curfew means that there will be employees going to work and interact with others.
Hopefully inshallah we will make it with the least human costs. Economies can be rebuilt but humans are more important.
Here is the latest live update I am keeping for the next coming days. 

Coronavirus on the Nile : Chronicles of Pandemic in Egypt and Mideast

Updated on 3/25/2020

I am going to leave this post pinned because I am tired honestly of writing posts when I depend mainly on live blogging. Below is the live blogging app, follow it for the latest news concerning Corona in Egypt, the Middle East Region and Africa. Stay at home and stay safe.

3/22/2020

It is our daily post with all the updates from here and there.
On Monday, the main issue that was the talk of the town or rather the country was the news about the two senior Egyptian military men who passed away because of Coronavirus.
There is increasing talk as well as a demand for a curfew-like in other countries including our Arab neighbors.

Sensitizing mummies sections at the Egyptian Museum of Cairo

According to recent official statements, we have not reached this stage yet that needs a curfew.
Nevertheless, the rumors do not want to stop at all.
Either way, here is the live update.

Coronavirus on the Nile : Chronicles of Pandemic in Egypt and Mideast on 22/3/2020

One would think that the major news of the day was President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi about Coronavirus in the country and the stimulus pack the Egyptian government prepared to help the economy but this news is overshadowed by another news.

A worker cleaning a light post in Luxor "AFP"

Egypt’s Armed Forces announced that Lt. General Khaled Shaltoot passed away in Port Said after getting infected by Coronavirus.
The news was announced from minutes ago in Cairo on social media and mainstream.
This is the first Egyptian military to die from Coronavirus in the country.
On 21 March, Egypt’s Coronavirus death toll was 10 people while its total number of COVID-19 patients in the country reached 294. The Egyptian Ministry of Health has not yet issued its daily statement.
Nevertheless, here is our daily live blogging event.

Coronavirus on the Nile : Chronicles of Pandemic in Egypt and Mideast on 21/3/2020

Egypt’s Ministry of Health announced that the total number of Coronavirus patients increased to 294 with 9 new positive cases registered officially in the country.

Egyptian army sensitizing major public squares in the
country in Cairo 

It also announced that 2 Coronavirus patients passed away but at the same time the number of fully recovered patients increased to 41.

Egypt witnessed more decisions to restrict public gatherings on Saturday and now I will start a new Liveblogging session.

Happy Mother’s Day 2020 : To the ladies wearing white and yellow in hospitals #Stayathome

A message from a doctor telling people to stay at home

On Saturday Egypt and the rest of the Arab World celebrate Mother’s Day. On Saturday, millions of Egyptians are celebrating millions of great women just as spring is officially starting. Unfortunately, there are no big celebrations or big presents or outings as expected but it is more of an online
celebration.

On this day and during this current hard time worldwide, I dedicate this post and I bend the knee to all those ladies who left their homes and children staying in hospitals fighting Coronavirus epidemic as much as I can.

All respect to those ladies whether they are in Egypt or Italy or Iran or China or Spain or New York or the UK.

All love, support and prayers.

In Egypt, our doctors and nurses wear white robes and Yellow protective suits.
Happy Mother’s Day to all beautiful ladies around the globe.

Young ICU nurses at the Quarantine hospital in Ismailia
"@Batoota"

Please stay at home for the sake of all those beautiful ladies whether grandmothers or mothers.

Coronavirus on the Nile : Chronicles of Friday 20/3/2020

Here are the latest developments and updates concerning Coronavirus in Egypt and Mideast as much as I can.

The number of Coronavirus in Egypt reached Thursday to 256 including 7 deaths and 28 fully recovered cases.

15 political detainees released in Egypt

Egypt’s High State security prosecution ordered on Thursday the release of 15 political opposition detainees including Dr. Hassan Nafaa, Dr. Shady El-Ghazly Harb and Hazem Abdel Azim.

Dr. Hassan Nafaa was arrested during September 2019 arrests following the videos of whistleblower Mohamed Ali and the famous 20 September protests.
Both El-Ghazly Harb and Hazem Abdel Azim were arrested in 2018.

The release of those activists comes amidst a campaign organized by opposition parties and powers in Egypt for a week or two now calling for the release of detainees because of Coronavirus concerns. Among those who spoke openly about this campaign was Mohamed ElBaradei.

فى لحظة يجب على الجميع ان ينسوا فيها خلافاتهم وان يتضامنوا أمام وباء لايفرق بينهم، وفى ضوء خطورته الشديدة على كبار السن والمرضى وأهمية العزلة الاجتماعية لمنع سرعة انتشاره، ستكون خطوة إنسانية فارقة إذا تم الإفراج عن سجناء الرأي والمحبوسين احتياطيا وغيرهم ممن تستدعى حالاتهم ذلك

— Mohamed ElBaradei (@ElBaradei) March 16, 2020

Mainstream media ignored completely. It is worth to mention that Iran, Bahrain and Spain released some of their detainees and prisoners temporarily

Thanks for the great four ladies who stood alone on Wednesday in a protest in downtown Cairo demanding the release of detainees over Coronavirus concerns.

Egyptian political activists Laila and Ahdat Soueif and Rabab
El-Mahdy "By Mona Seif" 

Those four ladies are Ahdaf Soueif, Laila Soueif, Mona Seif and Rabab El-Mahdy.
They were arrested and accused of a bunch of charges, but they were released on LE 5000 bail each early Thursday morning.

They paid the bail, but they have been released at last after many hours. Dr. Laila Soeuif was taken to High State security prosection where she found herself accused with set new charges in a Case.
She was released on LE 3000 bail pending investigation.

Coronavirus on the Nile : COVID-19 patients number goes to 256 in Egypt , 1 death and No Curfews so far "Updated"

A father and a daughter in a Cairo bus stop
"Mohamed Shokry"

On 19 March 2020

Egypt’s ministry of health announced Wednesday evening that  46 new positive Corona cases have been registered in Egypt raising the COVID-19 total patients in the country to 256

It also recorded one death

On 18 March 2020 

Egypt’s ministry of health announced Wednesday evening that 14 new positive Corona cases have been registered in Egypt raising the COVID-19 total patients in the country to 210.

It was 196 last night.


There have been no more fatalities and the number of fully recovered cases that left the quarantine hospital increased to 28.

The Egyptian armed forces denied rumors that a curfew was going to impose nationwide Wednesday evening.


I have started a new live blog, I will keep updating it till the ministry of health issues a new statement with a new number of patients or big announcements in general.

Coronavirus on the Nile : COVID-19 patients number jumps to 196 , Two new deaths and more patients in governorates

At Cairo international airport of Egypt "Reuters"

The numbers are evolving within hours. Egypt’s ministry of health has announced that the number of Coronavirus patients officially in the country increased to 196 after registering 30 new positive cases since its last update. The ministry also announced that 2 Coronavirus patients have passed away increasing the death toll in Egypt to 6.

More details and more news are merging about the virus and how it reached several governorates “Provinces or states”. I am returning back to the live blog option because things are moving rapidly by the hours. It is no longer recap thing with things changing so rapidly.
I know that the Egyptian government is trying to flat the curve but it seems that we have to go through the peak, unfortunately.

Coronavirus on the Nile : Life goes on in Downtown Cairo despite pandemic for now

Outside Cairo's famous state-owned pharmacy 

via Instagram https://ift.tt/3betovF

Downtown Cairo during Coronavirus : life goes on in the buzzing downtown of the Egyptian capital as the patients of the COVID-19 pandemic jumps in to 166.

This is outside the famous Al-Asaf  pharmacy which got no alcohol or disinfectants because of high demand. Alcohol and disinfectants have become a rare expensive commodities nowadays in Egypt following the suspension of study.

A Side note : More people began to wear surgical masks and gloves including winter gloves as a way of protection. Social distancing is still an alien concept in downtown Cairo especially among street vendors 

Coronavirus on the Nile : Coronavirus patients number jumps to 166 , two new deaths, 300 families in quarantine and Egypt suspends flights temporarily

Monday was even busier in Cairo when it comes to Coronavirus and its outbreak like any other place in the world. Here is a quick recap. It is like we are in front of a new level every day. It is getting more serious every day.

Don't know the illustrator but I found it on
Twitter

First of all, there is a worrying jump in the Coronavirus patients number in Egypt on Monday.
It jumped from 126 Monday afternoon to be 166 after officially registering new 40 positive Coronavirus cases in the country according to the ministry of health and the World Health Organization.

Two Coronavirus patients have passed away raising the country’s death into 4. The two additional cases are for an an-72-years-old German tourist who passed away in hospital in Luxor and a 50-years-old Egyptian man from Nile Delta’s Dakahalia Governorate.

Back to the new 40 patients, it turned out that they are 35 Egyptians and 5 foreigners.
The 35 Egyptians include 8 Egyptians who returned back from Omra pilgrimage before its suspension in Saudi Arabia while the others contracted the virus from previously registered cases and were discovered in according to the tracing procedures of the WHO. 

The statement revealed that all the registered cases currently receiving treatment in quarantine hospitals in stable condition except 7 patients in fair conditions and two patients in critical condition.

Coronavirus on the Nile : Coronavirus patients numbers jump to 126, Gym centers closed in Cairo and Coronavirus hits stock market

An old Corona Chocolate ad from Egypt

It is Sunday, the day after suspending study in Universities and Schools for Coronavirus spread
concerns.

Gyms are closed down and more religious ceremonies involving the gatherings are suspended till further notice. 

The Egyptian Stock market is hit hard by the virus.

People are worried but that did not stop some of them from sharing memes and jokes, we are Egyptians after all and we love to laugh at everything including ourselves. 

People are also waiting for April more than ever when the temperature is high so it can kill the virus or as they hope.

Here is another live blog even to gather all things Coronavirus in Egypt currently after the break

After the Dragon : When the Nile in Egypt turned in to Brown

Brownish River Nile in Cairo

This is how the River Nile looks like in Cairo on Sunday two days after the Dragon storm.
"It is like the Nescafe," an elderly Egyptian told me this Sunday morning.

The ministry of irrigation issued a statement saying that this color was resulted due to the dust and sand the heavy rains brought in its trips from the hills of Upper Egypt to the heavy rains torrents which end up in the River Nile.

This is creating a problem for Water companies in Egypt which had to cut water for nearly 12 hours across the country in order to purify water from dust lees.

Up till we know that only 20 people across the country. The most devastating part in the country is the 15 May Shantytown.

On Saturday, a mass funeral was held at a Church near the area and the photos there are so sad.

From the mass-funeral of the victims by Nader Nabil

Coronavirus on the Nile : Egypt suspends study , the Coronavirus patients number jumps to 110 , Study suspended for 15 days and Matt Swider is on his way home “Updated”

There are huge developments in Egypt concerning the Coronavirus pandemic in the country.

First of Egypt’s ministry of health and World Health Organization announced Saturday evening that the number of Coronavirus patients in Egypt jumped into 110 after the registration of 17 new positive cases in the country officially.

أعلنت @mohpegypt اليوم تسجيل ١٧ حالة ايجابية جديدة لمرض كوفيد-19، والحالات هي ٣ أجانب من جنسيات مختلفة، و١٤ مصريا منهم حالة عائدة من السعودية والأخرى من الإمارات، والباقين من المخالطين للحالات الإيجابية التي تم اكتشافها والإعلان عنها مسبقًا.ليصبح مجمل الإصابات بمصر ١١٠ حالة.

— WHO Egypt (@WHOEgypt) March 14, 2020

According to the official statements, the 17 cases include 3 foreigners and 14 Egyptians.

A street in Alexandria's Sidi Bishr
street sensitized "Twitter"

The 14 Egyptians include an infected person who has returned from Saudi Arabia and another one from Emirates. It is worth mentioning that KSA suspended flights with Egypt and the UAE is said to stop issuing Visa for a couple of days according to travel agents in Egypt.

The statement added that the rest of the cases contracted the virus from previously announced cases.

We know according to official statements that among the new batch of patients,  students in 7 Egyptian schools in different areas including Zamalek, Cairo as in “City International School”, Giza, Alexandria and Sharkia.

There are some contradicting official statements concerning the students in the schools that contracted the virus. The minister of education Tarek Shawky stated earlier Saturday that there were "6 Children" that tested positive for Coronavirus in schools in "Giza, Alexandria and Sharkia" without giving further details.

On the other hand , Minister Hala Zayid on of health stated on TV that there are only "2 Children" that contracted the virus in two different schools and the "rest contracted the virus from previously registered cases".

She added that one of the patients was also a teacher and not a student.

This is the first time we know that there are confirmed and recognized cases in Alexandria and Sharkia.

So far Coronavirus has reported an outbreak in Luxor, Hurghada “Red Sea”, “Sidi Bishr” Alexandria, Zamalek and Heliopolis “Cairo”, Giza , Sharkia "Biblies: and Mansoura.

We know also two of the Egyptian cases are two ladies from Alexandria.

They contracted the virus from their brother who returned Egypt in a visit along with his Italian wife. Both their brother and their Italian sister-in-law were tested positive earlier for Coronavirus.

The two ladies live in Sidi Bishr district in Alexandria and the health directorate reportedly sensitized the streets there. They were transferred to the quarantine hospital in Alexandria, yes we are in the stage where local hospitals allocate a whole ward to quarantine Coronavirus patients if needed. 

From a couple of hours ago, Egypt’s Abdel Fattah El-Sisi issued a directive to suspend Study nationwide for two weeks “15 days” starting on Sunday, 15 March 2020

Dragon Storm hits Egypt : The morning after the dragon

According to Egypt’s official weather forecast, the unstable weather conditions wave will continue on Friday but God is merciful enough to give us a break after long of unprecedented rain. At least 20 people were killed on Thursday according to the statements of the government on Friday.

Already since last night, it was speculated that it was more than five especially that more photos and videos began to emerge showing horrifying scenes of alleged bodies floating in flooding streets and people screaming here and there about how flooding water was electrocuted.

On Saturday, stories began to emerge about how some people lost their lives while attempting to save others from the heavy rain and flooded streets.
One of the areas that hit badly by the storm is the 15 May Shantytown in Helwan which has got at least 9 people dead and 25 others considered missing including women and children at least on Thursday due to heavy rains that turned in to floods.

75% of the huts collapsed according to activists because of the heavy rain.

15 May Shantytown is made of unlicensed huts and buildings where its extremely poor people’s main profession is collecting garbage and sorting it in that area that lacks any decent living facility.
I won’t lie but this is the first time I hear about this area in Cairo. This shows you how much it is neglected and fell off the map.

Here is a video showing the floods in the area.

Coronavirus on the Nile : Egypt’s second Coronavirus death , patients numbers jump in to 80 and international school closed down over Coronavirus fear "Updated"

Coronavirus does not give damn to any storm or medicane or dragon.
Egypt’s health ministry announced Thursday evening Egypt’s second Coronavirus death and that 13 new Coronavirus cases were confirmed on the same day.

According to the statement issued MOH on the cases, the Coronavirus second fatality was for an a-60-years-old woman from a village from Dakahlia Governorate in Nile Delta
The lady was admitted to Mansoura Chest hospital after suffering from Acute pneumonia Wednesday morning.

A tourist wearing a mask during his visit to pyramids earlier this week
Reuters

She underwent a PCR test for Corona and it turned positive Wednesday. She was transferred to the quarantine hospital but died there.
It turned out that one member of her family used to live in Italy with his Italian wife and already he suffered from Coronavirus and could not survive because he was already suffering from a tumor.
His Italian wife brought back his body to buried in Egypt and she stayed with our Egyptian lady and her family for three days.

This is the second Coronavirus death officially recorded in Egypt after the German tourist who passed away on 8 March after arriving in Egypt a week earlier.
This is the first Egyptian Coronavirus death inside Egypt.
I am so concerned because this is the first confirmed death and infection outside the Luxor Cruise ship outbreak zone. We are speaking about the Nile Delta.

New 13 Cases but there are patients recovering

The statement of the MOH stated also that there are 13 new positive Coronavirus cases raising the number of confirmed cases in Egypt since the outbreak into 80 cases.

Dragon Storm hits Egypt : Live updates

This is how the stormy clouds were looming over my house in Giza at 1 PM Egypt is hit by a storm called Dragon storm “ do not dare to ask what that name is because I do not have an answer.

Things look more biblical in the outskirts of Cairo and Giza.

We have had frequent water and power outage.

Heavy rain, strong wind and thunder as well as lightening are here since late night and yet the peak of the storm has not reached yet.

It will continue on Friday.

The Egyptian government took the best decision in 20 years or more on Tuesday when it decided to give the day off to most employees in the country.

It is alarming.

I am having a live blog event to keep things updated here quickly so in case if there is another power outage again, I will use my mobile phone instead.

It is after the break.

Coronavirus on the Nile : Pandemic in time of heavy rains , Patients number hit 67 but people are recovering "Live updated"

Sensitizing EgyptAir airplane at Cairo International
Airport 

World Health Organization has just announced that the Coronavirus can be characterized as a Pandemic from a few minutes ago.

At the same time, Egypt’s ministry of health announced that the number of Coronavirus patients in the country increased from 59 to 60 but at the same time the 27 cases have tested negative after positive.

EgyptAir sanitized Cairo International airport as well as its airplanes which is a great move.

Nevertheless, the main event in Cairo tonight is not Corona but rather the heavy rains and medicanes/storms expected in the country and it looks like the apocalypse will happen literally on Thursdays with the number of warnings, statements, preparations, and official warnings again.

I am having another live Blog event to keep all news and statements in one place.

Live Blog

Good will prevail eventually : We can fight Coronavirus Asian Xenophobia in Egypt "Updated"

I was going to write a very angry post about this sad incident that happened to an Asian man from a couple of days ago and make some noise so Uber can do an action to correct partially what has happened.

The story started with a video and a couple of photos showing some ride-hailing app driver dropping an Asian man in the middle of the Ring high way while covering his nose and mouth.

Wednesday afternoon, news came that the Egyptian authorities arrested the driver who dropped the Asian man and the man who filmed the incident as the story went viral. Both men have been detained four pending investigation on Thursday per the orders of general persecution.

I am really sorry for the Asian man either ways.


The man who filmed the whole incident was actually mocking and making fun of that Asian man who could not find help.

The man who filmed the clip is rude if I may say.

It was a sad video that makes you feel sorry about how Egyptian society has become or to be accurate how some Egyptians have become.

Luckily, many denounced the video online and attacked the driver and the video shooter who had to close down his Facebook account because people attacked him.

Now the truly good news for real was that a group of Egyptians found the young man and apologized to him

Coronavirus on the Nile : Patients number reaches 59 but Some have recovered, No public gatherings in Egypt and Lebanon’s first COVID19 fatality "Live"

I could not write and publish this daily update because it I am really tired and exhausted , it is one of those times journalists around the globe that feel the stress to the bone.
Anyhow in Monday and Tuesday here is the latest updates concerning Coronavirus and its panic , yes there is panic
To be honest , I do not understand if this global panic was right in its place or was too much.

Corona Hot Chocolate 

May be as a veteran Egyptian who suffers from cold and flu every year , sometimes I feel I do not get the fuss especially the death rate has not reached an alarming point yet and hopefully it won’t.
I want to write something about Grand Ethiopian Dam but I can’t find proper time to deal with this extremely critical and important matter.
The first part of the post will be pinned while the rest I will be using Live updating to catch news quickly like respectable news blog in those tough days

Corona Patients numbers increase but some have began to recover already 

The Novel Coronavirus patients began to recover in Egypt according to the latest Ministry of health’s
Late Monday , Egypt’s Health Ministry and World Health Organization “WHO” declared that the number of Coronavirus patients in the country increased to 59.

According to the Egyptian MOH, the new cases that tested positive are 4 cases ; a foreigner lady and three Egyptians.

The official MOH did not elaborate much about the case but the word in the media since last night that the foreign lady was actually the widow of the German tourist who passed away in Hurghada because of Coronavirus and became the country’s first COVID19 fatality.  

The other three Egyptians are said to be from the people who interacted with the Coronavirus patients in the past few days. They were all transferred to the quarantine hospital in Marsa Matrouh

In a co-joint press conference with other ministers over Coronavirus  by Health Minister Hala Zayid stated an interesting fact that out of those 59 cases tested positive for Coronavirus , 51 did not show any symptoms.

She also revealed on Wednesday Egypt will receive the batch of a new Coronavirus testing kit that was introduced only to the world last week.

Also interesting fact was revealed in the press by the minister of media state affairs Osama Heikal "Yes, both are back whether the title or Heikal in government" , Egypt will test all incoming travelers starting from Wednesday. I do not know but this means not the travelers were being examined before.

Live update

A Supermoon in time of Coronavirus

As whole cities and countries are locked down and there is some justified and unjustified panic.
Still, we can enjoy a little bit of nature, we can simply just look up to the sky and enjoy the scene especially in the time of the full moon.

Here is the photo of the full moon or rather the Supermoon as appeared in an Egyptian night on 9 March 2020.

March 2020 Supermoon 

Next month will witness another Supermoon on 8 April 2020.

You can know the date of the next Supermoon using Google Chrome if you write down in the URL tab “Supermoon 2020”
By the way, it is just so sad to know that for the first time the pollution rates have declined in the past few weeks because of Coronavirus lockdown. 

Coronavirus on the Nile : Egypt's first Coronavirus death, Patients Numbers jump to 55 , queues for PCR Certificates and patient in critical condition "Updated"

First of all, Egypt’s ministry of health announced the country as well the continent’s first Coronavirus death case

According to the ministry of health, a 60-years-old German tourist who arrived in Egypt from 7 days ago.

The German patient was admitted to the hospital Friday 6 March 2020 after arriving from Luxor as he began to have a high fever.

He was found positive for Coronavirus on 7 March 2020 and at the same time, he was admitted to the ICU because his condition deteriorated but he refused to be transferred to the quarantine hospital in Marsa Matrouh.

His condition deteriorated more as he suffered respiratory failure caused by acute pneumonia. He passed away on Sunday 8 March 2019.

He is the first Coronavirus death in Egypt and Africa. I feel sorry for his death and I sincerely present my condolences to his family and friends.

We know that he is from Hamburg and actually his wife is currently being tested too.

Now according to my sources, the German patient was staying had spent a couple of days in a Nile Cruise between Luxor and Aswan.
The Nile Cruise boat and its passengers and crew members are being examined. We are speaking about not less than 100 people.

Hopefully, there will be no more outbreaks.

The numbers jump to 55 Coronavirus patients in Egypt

Egypt’s MOH announced that the Coronavirus patients jump in Egypt to 55 late Sunday evening

According to the MOH Spokesperson , 7 new cases included a male nurse who care for the Coronavirus Egyptian patient who came from Serbia and one of his relatives.

An Egyptian returning from “Umrah pilgrim” in Saudi Arabia as well as two relatives of one of the infected foreigners and another person who was on the board of M/S ASARA

This is not good at all.

The Central Public Health Laboratories’ sad scene

I am wondering if the Egyptian government especially the ministry of health expected or imagined the number of Egyptians who would stand in queues for hours on Sunday to get a Free-Coronavirus PCR Certificate so they can go and work in the Gulf from MOH’s Central Public Health Laboratories main headquarter !!!

Standing in front of the Central Lab in Downtown Cairo
by amazing Roger Anis

Since early morning, thousands of Egyptians including whole families stood in queues that turned into human blocks for hours in front of the Central lab of the health ministry to get the LE 1000-PCR Certificate in Downtown Cairo.

Coronavirus on the Nile : The Nile “Cruise” Corona cases jump to 34 cases , PCR analysis prices and more Gulf travel restrictions on Egyptian “Updated”

The same Corona ad every time

Just from a couple of minutes ago in Cairo, Egypt’s minister of health Hala Zayed announced Saturday evening that new 33 cases tested positive for Coronavirus from the passengers on that Nile Cruise that witnessed the largest outbreak of the virus in the country.

In a press conference held with Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, Minister Zayed stated that only one case of suspected 12 Coronavirus cases from the Egyptian crew tested positive while the rest 11 tested negative.
She also added that the 11 are currently quarantined on the board of the ship in Luxor after its sanitization.
Now to the new 33 cases, it turned out that there were also on the board of the Nile Cruise.
The 34 cases are going to be transferred to the Naegla Hospital in Marsa Matrouh as said in the presser.

“There were 171 people on the board of the cruise ship including 101 foreigners and 70 Egyptians and after discovering the outbreak zone, we confirmed that 45 Coronavirus cases were on the board of the ship including 19 foreigners,” Hala Zayed said.

Coronavirus on the Nile : New 12 cases in Egypt "Updated"

Just from a couple of minutes ago, Egypt’s Health Ministry and World Health Organization “WHO” announced the discovery of 12 new cases that test positive to Coronavirus raising the number of discovered the Novel Coronavirus in the country to 15 cases.

The 12 cases are for Egyptians who work on a Nile Cruise coming from Aswan to Luxor.

An old ad for Egypt's famous Corona
Hot Chocolate 

The “index case” of this outbreak was the US-Taiwanese tourist who was on the board of the cruise who was discovered in the United States and according to the news report, she did not only transmit the virus to the 12 Egyptians but to two US tourists on the same cruise who returned back to the States.

This outbreak shows that the virus has nothing to with the warm weather because Luxor and Aswan are usually warmer than the rest of the county in the time of that cruise.

The Egyptian MOH stated that all the people who dealt with the index case have been placed under quarantine for 14 days and they showed no symptoms but after conducting PCR tests, 12 Egyptian workers were tested positive and have been placed under more medical restricted quarantine.

Now officially the number of people infected by the virus since its outbreak jumped into 15 cases in Egypt.

The first case was for a Chinese citizen who was cured while the second case was a Canadian citizen working in the oil sector and currently is under quarantine.

Kodak Agfa presents : Egypt's Al-Azbakiya books market in photos and in video

There is no better time to share this than World Books Day.
It was one of my dreams and plans to visit the Cairo famous Al-Azbakiya market , Egypt and the Arab world oldest official second-hand book market.
This is the place where you can find old magazines and newspapers and secondhand books at reasonable prices in Downtown Cairo.
Its history starts officially in 1907 during the time of  Khedive Abbas Helmi II in the most unexpected way ever in the heart of the once upscale Al-Azbakiya district.
You can hear and know its full story from one of its oldest books vendor there Mr. Harbi Hassab.

Mr. Harbi Hassab inherited the job from his father and grandfather. He was kind enough to give some time for quick chitchat.
I know I still got this video shaking thing, I have not mastered yet the use of gimble because it takes a time to install the camera on it and move around quickly in a crowded place alone like Al-Azbakiya in Downtown Cairo.
Nevertheless, I tried my luck with a Go Pro fusion 360 camera but I have not still mastered editing its files.
I know that I have got a problem in sound and I have already added buying a mic to my to-do-list.

Visitors at Al-Azbakiya Market in Cairo 

Hisham Al-Ashmawy's execution : An End for bloody sad chapter

Earlier Wednesday, Egyptian armed forces announced that militant and former army special forces Hisham  Al-Ashmaway was executed by hanging.

The Egyptian army spokesperson published the news in a short statement accompanied by Al-Ashmway's last official photo in the execution reddish-orange suite.

Allegedly the last mugshot of Al-Ashmawy

It is unclear when the photo was taken or where precisely.

After his capture in October 2018 in Libya’s Derna by Khalifa Hafter’s Libyan National Army and that Chapo-style transfer to Cairo, the former special officer in Egypt’s Thunderbolt forces faced 5 trials with a wide range of charges above them carrying out terrorist attacks against army and police forces.